Facts for 1998

The 1998 Hottest 100 was the sixth annual Hottest 100 countdown since the change of the format which allowed only songs from the previous year to be voted for.

The Countdown

The countdown took place in January of 1999 and featured a mixture of 70 different artists.

The 1998 countdown is one of three countdowns to feature two versions of the same song. Jebediah's 'Harpoon' was voted into the #7 position, while the cover by Something For Kate reached #85. This happened again in 2004 when Scissor Sisters charted with their cover of Franz Ferdinand's winning track 'Take Me Out', and in 2013 when San Cisco also charted with their cover of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky'. This had also happened in the 1989 All Time countdown when Art Of Noise charted with their cover of Prince's 'Kiss'.

This countdown has long been the subject of ridicule, namely in that The Offspring's winning song, 'Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)', is considered to be a 'joke song'. Derisive references have been made in more recent countdowns. including some announcers using it as reason to abolish democratic voting systems, such as those used in the Hottest 100. Strangely, the 1993 countdown, in which Denis Leary's 'Asshole' won, is not given as much attention, despite the fact that 'Asshole' is 'officially' a comedy song.

At #2, Ben Lee charted with his song 'Cigarettes Will Kill You'. Reportedly, he was inspired to the name the song after the blunt, truthful nature of the title of The Verve's song 'The Drugs Don't Work', which reached #22 in 1997.

At #4, Hole charted with their song 'Celebrity Skin'. The song includes the line "Beautiful garbage, beautiful dresses. Can you stand up or will you just fall down?"
3 years later, Garbage, who also appeared at #57, #87, & #89 in the 1998 countdown, featured with their songs 'Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)' and 'Androgyny' from their album Beautiful Garbage. The title of the album comes directly from the lyrics in Hole's song.

At #14, Blink-182 charted with their song 'Josie'. The song includes the line "And my girlfriend likes UL and DHC. And she's so smart and independent, I don't think she needs me quite half as much as I know I need her. I wonder why there's not another guy that she'd prefer."
The first line references two bands; 'UL', better known as Unwritten Law, and 'DHC', better known as Dance Hall Crashers. Unwritten Law would later chart in the 2001 countdown at #69 with their song 'Up All Night'. Original members of Dance Hall Crashers, Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, charted at #31 in 1995 as members of Rancid with the song 'Time Bomb'.

The countdown is also one of only two to feature artists gaining three back to back tracks. It is yet to be done with the same band for all three tracks, however, Quan Yeomans of Regurgitator and Happyland scored three entries in a row with his work with the two bands, featuring at positions #26 through #28.
Again, this has only been matched once, with Dave Grohl featuring 3 times in a row due to his work with Nirvana and the Foo Fighters.

At #73, Stardust featured with 'Music Sounds Better With You'. To date, this is the only track ever released by the band, making them the first band to have their entire discography feature in the Hottest 100.

Despite it not being played by Triple J that year, Green Day's 'Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)' reached #84.

At #92, English band Space charted with the track 'The Ballad Of Tom Jones'. Despite having a sound that one would not expect to be heard on Triple J, Tom Jones charted in the 1994 countdown, reaching #9 with his cover of 'If I Only Knew', by Rise Robots Rise.

Grinspoon's appearance in the countdown continues their efforts from the previous year in which songs from album have been featured in non-consecutive countdowns. In 1995, Grinspoon released their track 'Sickfest' which was later re-released on their debut album 'Guide To Better Living' in 1998. The album also managed to feature in both the 1997 and 1998 countdowns. To date, it is the only album that features in 3 different countdowns. Non-consecutive appearances also occurred in the 2011 countdown with Architecture In Helsinki, and the 2015 countdown, when The Wombats charted.

Artists Featured

Quan Yeomans was the best performing artist of the countdown and was featured 6 times; 4 times with Regurgitator and 2 times with Happyland. Incidentally, the second best performing band of the countdown was in fact Regurgitator, who managed to achieve 4 entries, their highest reaching #6.

Garbage, Grinspoon, Jebediah, The Living End, Pearl Jam and The Whitlams all managed to gain 3 tracks each. Jebediah managed the highest entry, reaching #7.
16 other artists managed to appear twice in the countdown.